_Ben_

Appreciate this! Thanks.

It's doable! You want to be accessing the part of person properties.xml called <!-- CUSTOM CHALKBOARD STATS --> from line 24025 onwards in the original file. --- Whilst I have you - any idea on how I can stretch this panel to fill up to the scoreboard? It's not something I've ever actually looked at before!

Been playing with the touchline tablet to try and incorporate the chalkboard panel stats into a more user friendly method. I've added a few new things to each area: These now update 'live' for you and your opponent and, whilst I'm working through what does and doesn't work (progressive passes, for example, do not work here or anywhere for that matter), I'm able to build a nicer picture of seeing what is happening. Clicking on any of the buttons there takes you to the piece of action in the chalkboard, too.

His attributes are weighted quite nicely but he's really not pushed on and achieved what I believe he could have, largely given the fact that he's spent the majority of his development years not playing football: Coming back to us at 24/25 should have meant that he was ready made for this league but sadly, he isn't. I have renewed his contract for another year but, realistically, he's fallen back into third or fourth choice in either of my DM roles.

A tale of two cities. Leverkusen and not-Leverkusen. Our home record is somewhere near where we want to be, overall. Unbeaten at the BayArena and strong, scoring two goals a game. Yet, our away record has us barely scraping victories, scoring - and conceding - at a goal a game with some absolute mid-table form. In fact, we haven't lost a single home game this season but defeats on the road to Dortmund, Werder, Koln, Bayern, Fortuna and Stuttgart all came without us scoring and averaging just 0.95xG per game, reducing to 0.72 when discounting the 2.33 we accrued against Koln. Looking at those reverse fixtures - we beat Werder 2-0 in the reverse, Fortuna: 2-1, Stuttgart: 3-0 and drew with the Dortmund, Bayern and Koln proving that these are teams we can beat, we just need to be more tactically astute. Nevertheless, I feel that we've performed pretty well - just two places below our prediction with a transitional squad and taking into account the over performances of Stuttgart, who were fighting relegation when I moved to Bayern, and our rivals, Koln. Next season, there will surely be an onus on teams like Wolfsburg, predicted eighth but finished fifteenth as well as the likes of Gladbach, who occupied the top four for the majority of the season, to show a return to form. Yet, for me, we've finished just about where we should've expected: the xPts table has us just about on par, although over performing in each area, something which cannot really be seen as a long term approach! A full season means that I have an accurate picture of how my style is translating on the pitch and, overall, I feel that we're doing pretty well. We're third in the league for dribbles per game - a key metric in how well we carry the ball and move vertically but only register ninth for passes within the opponent's box and tenth for chances created. Our shots are then pretty poor quality - seventeenth in the league at 39% accuracy but we convert 15% of all of them, leaving in fourth in that metric. Pleasingly, our opposition conversion rate sits at a league low 7% but that also is a double edged sword: is it that low because we allow the fewest amount of shots? (no, we are seventh in that metric), or is it that low because Fischhaber has been so good? (yes, he has an xGP of 12.76, second in the league after Stuttgart's keeper, which may well be worth noting for next season). Our defensive line height - 37.58m - puts us seventh, some three metres ahead of Union Berlin but some seven behind Bayern's high line. Interestingly, this line would put us fourth in the Premier League, twelfth in Serie A, fourteenth in La Liga and eighth in Ligue Une. This stat really means nothing in the grand scheme of things but just kind of reassures me that I'm not at either end of the spectrum with what I'm seeing and, therefore, my argument that my high line costs me goals away from home probably isn't that valid. Overall, our general attacking team stats need to be looked at. Some of this is tactical and some of it is player driven, which I hope to unpick a bit more. We lead the league in xG overperformance; granted, some of our goals are wonderful and with players like Duran, we can shoot from long range and maintain a high success rate but we also do not create enough high quality chances - and, in my experience, a lot of those are created (particularly with us as the defending team) by pull backs into the box. Our cross completion - at 12% - is the league low with us attempting 746, the thirteenth best in the league. Neither Minami or, when he played, Boniface really were a huge presence in the box and with Duran's trait to arrive late, I guess it means that we barely had the players occupying the spaces. Furthermore, we're fully mid-table with crosses attempted from set pieces per game, at 7.74 - 35% of our overall crosses. I'm not anti wing-play but, with a VOL and an SS in the middle, I really want to use them. That being said, to be an elite side, we need to have several strings to our bow and do most things well, even if we favour a style of play. That will come - I hope! As the season began to dwindle, I began planning in more depth for next season.With significant losses made this season despite a small wage bill and tight control over transfer spend, I needed to look a little deeper than maybe I would normally. Whilst I’m excited at the news regarding youth graduate Yekini and his lovely sell on clause, money will need to come into the club before it can go back out, hence a more holistic view of finances and performance. I think that it feels like a nice collab with my player stats to look at, firstly, minutes, and then effectiveness based on a financial metric rather than just a performance one. Above are three graphs, split roughly into positional areas - defend, transition, score - showing the total amount of minutes played this season (red) shown as a percentage of the total available, with a further black bar to show the minutes available and not on the pitch, with any space at the end showing minutes they were not available for. Whilst I have renewed some contracts across the season and - therefore - will slightly invalidate small bits of data, I have multiplied the weekly wage by fifty-two and then divided it by the number of minutes that they have played, essentially created a €/min metric to see really who is justifying their wages as our pursestrings tighten. Defensively, I have heavily relied on my two full backs Ozdemir and Hagiwara with the latter costing nearly double but being a key player. There is significant interest from the big boys and Saudi Arabia but, hopefully, my €70m price tag will put them off. At the other end, neither Bischoff (€28,000 until 2034) or Krejci (€38,500 until 2034) have really played that much, even though they aren't paid that much whereas Tapsoba (€67,000 until 2034) has found his minutes dwindling as age catches up to him. In the midfield, the backups - Bangura, Stiepermann and Gottschalt have all worked our pretty expensive with the latter reaching an extension taking him to €36,500 until 2036 - not ideal for just over 25% of the game time played. Up front, the situation with Boniface is pretty clear - €85,000 until 2034 combined with availability for less than three quarters of the game time, meaning he's cost me over €5,000 per minute he's played. Furthermore, if I dig deeper to now look at cost per goal involvement, excluding those such as Fischhaber, Ozdemir and Hagiwara, you'll see that Boniface has cost me over €1m per involvement this season, which is pretty appalling when compared to Minami - €52,000, Krassnizter - €52,000 and even the likes of Gottschalt (€379,600), Bangura (€119,600) and Stierpmann (€273,000). Boniface has been well and truly usurped by a youngster who'd never played in Europe before in Minami. The twenty year old has overperformed his Non Pen xG + xA per 90 buy 0.33 a game, with 0.83 contributions per game, to the Nigerians' 0.43, from an expected 0.41. The only area in which the elder statesman still holds his crown in in his aerial competence, which, if we'd put more crosses into the box, may well have led to more goals. However, significant injuries have hampered Victor's game time and part of me feels that it'd be unfair to really comment on his performance because of that, however, across his career, he's hardly been the prolific 20-goal striker that we really need to kick on with. He's our joint highest earner with twelve months left on his deal and, unfortunately, I think his time here might be coming to an end. Part of me then worries that Yuki, even with sixty-eight goals in 129 games, is a little too inexperienced to lead the line of a Europa League club and that I might need to look elsewhere to replace. One of those replacements who could potentially slide back into a forward role are Pejsa or Arkine, both of whom have had particularly poor years on the wings. I allowed Stepan a bit of time to come in, settle, and learn how to play as a wide forward - feeling that his lack of top end speed might hold him up and that utilising his Flair, Work Rate and Technique from out wide might help us create - but, I feel I might've been wrong. Unlike Boniface, he does have age and time on his side, with another four years at the club. However, with thirteen appearances off the bench given a lack of form, I think he's going to be playing for his future at the start of next season. On the other wing is Arkine, wo has also been pretty poor, ending with just a third of Krassnitzer's goal contributions, at 0.20 per/90. Hicham feels a bit different to Stepan, having been here longer and already demonstrating what a top quality player he is. Mentally, he is a lot stronger than the Czechian and I think, if necessary, he could move back up front, which would, actually, mean that I don't need to recruit a new player. That would give the aforementioned Krassnitzer a bit more game time and allow the likes of Stiepermann and Bangura more, too. Both of those, along with Gottschalt have done really well but all are used as impact subs and I am acutely aware of the difference and step up between a bench option and a key player, of which I don't feel that either of these could necessarily do. The latter is not home grown at the club but the former two bring that, also, which will be even more important as we are in Europe next year. Much to ponder! So much so that I'll leave that for an entirely separate post. The intake was presented to me and felt a little bloated but, as I wanted, some top quality talents. I quickly worked my way through who I felt deserving of a contract and the whittled down of eleven players signed contracts and headed to the youth side. At this point, and - again - with that style over substance approach that does feel like it's coming out more and more, I moved back to my Statman skin and added a graphic on the player popup panel that shows their suitability towards the DNA attributes - first touch, technique, decisions, determination and pace. Whilst my own Excel calculations then add in age and nationality where the game cannot - I felt that this would be a solid base point and, for the most part, the youth players all rate highly on those two additional strands, anyway. The gem of this intake, and Ternana's loss is Francesco D'Anzi. At 16, he's already incredibly well rounded for a job on either wing and has no real holes within his game. Interestingly, my team don't rate is potential ability to be the highest - indicating a ceiling created by really early development. However, now that we are in the almost elite level, I take far less interest in those and just see no end goal for their development. He'll work his way through the changing foci, as do all the youth players but I think will be fast-tracked into some first team minutes very soon. Cevik is the highest rated player from this intake and I think he'd make a decent inside forward/wide forward kind of role but I['m less excited about him than D'Anzi! Joel Kahl is the perfect template for a player style I'm missing so dearly - the role where a player can switch between an IFB(d) and a CWB(a) role, with ease. A lot of the full backs on the market are one or the other but I see good development potential for the young Swedish born lad and his height at full back will certainly be a bonus, too. Ivan Zrilic is a player who really fits in with the club DNA and is, again, quite well rounded for his age. Whilst he's only sixteen, I'm not entirely sold as to whether he has the top speed required for a Shadow Striker role but, then again, feels too weak for a Volante role. A poorer personality than the other players talked about, too, means that he'll have to work really hard to build on is good foundation. Alberto is unlikely to become a top quality keeper but, as another distributor, is so much more aligned to the team's needs than Schulz - who, despite having high potential, will be forming the first wave of mismatched player departures, where the good of the team and the identity of the team trumps that of the individual; see Victor Manuel Mayor and his (heavily incentivised) move to Bayern due to his lack of development, largely caused by his personality. Five star potential or not, he's wholly unsuited to what I want to create! However, for every departure, there is potential for an arrival or just someone to play themselves into my plans. Yu Ho-Jae arrived in January for €1m and is doing pretty well at the youth level. FYI - if you change the youth team view to this, their stats populate all the graphs and charts I've created, so these are in-game screenshots of their performances in the U19.Liga. Yu already fits in really nicely with the ideology of the club and has two Japanese players that, if he reaches the first team, will surely be able to assist his integration. Again, a strong positive for the new recruitment model and a big thanks to Yushi Sato for finding him! Promising players are coming from closer to home, too. Mushure, despite not really fitting into my DNA or having the top end potential to really make it as a first team player here, has performed really well with fifteen goal contributions in the youth side. This is part of my bigger commitment to the B04 pathway that aims to keep as many players within professional football as possible, giving them a two or three year apprenticeship, if nothing else! I've also lucked out with some loan deals after getting the board to agree to a further affiliate, Ingolstadt, in the 3.Liga Noa Nikolic was on loan at my other feeder, Duisberg, who sat bottom of the 2.Liga. He'd scored twice in twelve and wasn't playing well enough to really kick on. However, moving him down a level has seen the goals fly in and his development skyrocket. Additionally, I then used this opportunity to get three other players there, too, with Bjorklund the only one who'd not been at Duisberg earlier in the season. Whilst playing at the 3.Liga level may not be quite right for their ability, balancing good form with training facilities feels really hard this time around. With Ingolstadt in a playoff to get promoted, I kind of hope they don't - meaning that I still have a team at each professional level of the game to utilise for playing time. Steady progression is better than no progression! I'm hoping that Yekini moves to PSG which should, even after TV money, stabilise us for the summer as to not need a big sale. However, I want to be coy in the transfer market and only bring in if we are really able to upgrade and, given my thoughts here, may have the money from the potential sale of Boniface to reimburse. The quality of German talent is really poor at the moment or, it is good and the player is not interested. Therefore, players like academy graduate Kai Havertz, who is about to leave Arsenal, may be looked at. However, I think that the majority of the summer will be fine tuning the squad and really working with what I have, as their head coach. Die Werkself!

Thanks for taking time to read them! It's a really interesting point that you make about that dynamism in build up and I've spent a lot of hours trying to recount which managers allow us to be more progressive from the back and which don't - meaning that there has been some variation with my build up. Yet, what you've presented there is somewhat of the middle ground I may have been missing. My 3-2 build up with two IFB is quite tame at time and relies on a lot of quality from the four attackers and then the VOL in the middle but, on the other end of the spectrum, the shape that I fall back on when teams are sitting back - swapping the backline to a CWB(a)-BPD-L-IFB - provides me with a lot more offensive prowess but a lot less defensive stability. It does definitely feel like slow progress and an even bigger jump to catch Bayern but that, to me, is where the fun lies!

Appreciate this! Thank you!

I tried to use a selector button hidden within the coloured bar, which would then move the pointer along. Sadly, it didn’t work! The bar currently is the same for human and AI players but, as you’d expect, the process graph is hidden for them.

Thanks! I spend an awful lot of time just looking through players as well as using this panel as a thumbnail in my career updates so some tidying up on here was much needed: Above are the three tabbed parts for players currently at a human club.

Yeah - that was my exact thought with the right one, too. Statman - my accent colour - looks too close to the orange, black (and bg darker) get lost still and 'blue 900' - another skin theme colour - gets lost too I've, therefore, reverted to the 'fg' colour and just made it a little thicker and added a little contrast to it:

Interested in an opinion here please. I'm trying different ways to display my club DNA on the player popup panel and have found two ways I quite like: Both animate, with the left filling and the marker on the right moving across to the end point. There are slightly different graphics behind them, which is why they are in slightly different end places but that's fine as soon as I am comparing like for like. I am leaning towards the latter as it feels more scaleable in terms of what good looks like but am open to ideas. Sadly, I've not been able to make this editable so the five attributes that are used to make it up are, unless you amend the .xml file, fixed.

It's all over the shop but I know that FM calculates possession in a different way, or, at least, it did. Therefore, I wonder if it is something that I just need to keep comparisons within the game for. We're now pressing more than we ever have done so I'll see if I get a change from the usual 5/6 that we recorded previously.

Tough season! I saw the first league table and hadn't clocked it was the halfway point but I can now breathe a little easier! What are the plans for the summer and into next season? Is it a total revamp or just some consolidating from learning points?

I think this window and your previous dilemas, all of which I agree to, by the way, are perfect for the course you want to take this. You may be able to challenge for the title if you splash that £116m but I know you'll lose the heart and soul of this save and probably be a little bored in a week or so. I'm continuously finding myself immersed in your story-telling and take huge inspiration from your posts!

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing these ideas...

My old foci felt out-dated and gave me a very broad search criteria, with little identity or alignment with my recruitment targets. Therefore, I've used a similar formula as with my players to generate a suitability rating for my scouting team, looking at the harmonic mean, five times, to create an overall percentage rating. I'm looking for scouts who are able to judge ability and potential but also those adaptable to new countries, disciplined with their work and determined to produce results that can benefit the sporting side of the team. Then, with those still at the club following a raid of other teams, I tried to prioritise sending a scout to the area where they have knowledge - through their first, or additional, nationalities. When that ran out, I just assigned scouts to countries that mean 95% of the twenty one leagues (Scotland and Cyprus remain) are now covered by my scouting team with the remaining staff then being assigned more generic but still focused recruitment jobs across the continent and globe. This new move sits alongside an even more driven academy approach as we are losing around €30m a year and are needing to stay afloat with wholesale changes each summer. The 4231 shape continues to evolve but I feel like it's the direction that is the most suitable for the team, the players I have and my overarching style of play. We're recording the second most dribbles per game, fourteenth least passes in our box and, actually, still have the lowest OPPDA in the league - a sign that we're not entirely gegenpressing our way through things, just yet! There is still a considerable amount left to improve on and I think that we need to continue to work on creating those high-quality chances but it's a move in the right direction! The happiness around our tactical direction largely mirrors my happiness around our league form. We've got through highs and lows and pretty much everything in between - taking points from Bayern and Leipzig but then coming away with nothing against Werder and Dusseldorf as well as a poor draw with relegation-battling Heidenheim. I've been able to - and somewhat forced to - rotate my attacking five considerably as the season has gone on, with long term injuries for Boniface and then a repeated set of short term knocks for the likes of Pejsa, Duran and Krassnizter. However, we've fared pretty well and have been able to make the BayArena a bit of a fortress of late. --- Really (and I mean really) concise one from me here but necessary to catch back up and enjoy a bit of Saturday afternoon FM-ing!

Yeah - I think that the link between performances and progress is quite tight this year. Really hard (and rightly so) to find the right level and the right ability. I will stay at Bayer for the remainder of my time, probably, but the problem with Duisberg is that they're currently bottom of the league and my hot prospect striker has two in fifteen with an awful rating. I'm just trying to find a 3.Liga club but, as you say, this could be a decent middle ground even if you've put me off ever having a competitive reserve club given the bugs everywhere! I like your new HoYD but, given the success you've had this season, wonder if you're potentially looking just that bit too deep? I know it's a marginal gains business and you want to improve everywhere, but you've brought through a high number of quality youngsters and have reached a high that I don't think many would be able to - do you think you're already over achieving? Absoluetly not a criticism but I know, for me - as soon as I had a bad intake with Caers, I'd want to rip it all up and start again!

I just want to say that, despite creating and using my own skin, this is the one that got me into this and this is the marker for us all to aim for. The one thing that really got me was the bookmark popup and what I could then do with it... This is just a test but the ability to create popups like this is completely new to me. I can create them in areas where I pre-allocate spaces but have never cracked the actual free standing element of it. --- I also love the hidden ID 'copier' - that is genuis!

Yes. I know. But you don’t have to paint the picture that I’m some beast that shoots down your ideas when I have, repeatedly, offered support and guidance, taking on board your feedback to develop my skin. You’ve attempted to paint a bad picture of me and my work for no reason. As for the issue - it is likely skin related but, as I’ve told you numerous times, you must restart FM24 as I’ve made significant changes to person properties.xml that only take effect when that happens. If it still isn’t working on my skin and the default skin, the issue is your end. Otherwise, it’s something I will look at when I have time.

Seriously - what is your issue?!

Congratulations! Are you in a position to spend all £10m of that? How big is your scouting setup at present?

That's interesting and really good to hear, to be honest. Similarly, my board are expecting quite a slow rate of progress so maybe I should just seek to give out more youth minutes. What is Lozano's personality? How has he been rating? I'm finding that so much is linked to performance at the moment for the development of my youngsters. I had a couple of players at Bochum who were playing poorly one season and barely progressed but came on leaps and bounds in the following year, when we went up. Obviously, there is more to it than that - age, suitability for the first team, better coaches, tactical adjustments etc etc but it was something I noted. We don't have a B-team, no, but - at the end of each season - I get asked if I want to form one. The issue is that, unlike your B squad, they'd start in the fourth or fifth tier and would take ages to reach a level that was of any use to me, with them not being able to play above the third tier anyway. I have an affiliate - Duisburg - in the 2.Liga and I think that they're a solid choice to send my youngsters to, whilst giving the rest opportunities - sporadically - in the first team until they are able to hold down a place at a decent level. EDIT: On your youth intake. To you, does it feel a little underwhelming? I think that, looking at Aguirre, Mourino and Lozano and then back at that crop, there feels far less top end talent but - also - the players don't quite feel as well-rounded as previous intakes. Maybe that's just me and I know you're the right person to address that if it is an issue for you, too!

Always had a soft spot for Italy, and - in particular - those from the southern part of Italy. I will be following this closely: good luck!

It's a massive job but I'm loving it! Feels very similar to that step to Atalanta last year but I hope that, this year, I spend a bit more time with the substance element of building this club. Nowhere near a title, it's been all Bayern, which makes the end goal even sweeter. Yeah. He's really impressed me even if he's asking for a transfer because I decided to move he and Pejsa to 'Squad Players' - the latter has dropped it but he hasn't, yet. He's got one goal and four assists from his first three hundred and twenty-five minutes in black and red. Yes - I've given him full control, using the 'Add as transfer target' feature to decide the price (obviously, I know the ball park figure as I've scouted) and then then the contract. I felt that, with the absence of what you mention Dan, there are going to be ridiculous demands - like him giving the lad below a base wage of €14k p/w and a rise to €41k after 25 games. He's fifteen! If that was me, I'd absolutely be giving messages that 'the new contract has made him complacent' as I'd have a significant nest egg by the time I would be twenty. What is more - twenty five league games for us isn't even that much. I'd give him a couple of years on loan then some time off the bench before giving him a wage not too from halfway towards my self imposed €100k p/w limit. But I do think that, once I'm better at building my shortlists, I'll add in the max contract and then the squad status bit - especially as I'm fine tuning. To be honest, my lie has probably worked out for the best as it brought them more interest in joining us in the first place!

Oh, far too deep! I'd first put both players through the comparative tools to see if there is significant discrepancy between their suitability to play for Bayer. If there is nothing really there, then it'd all be down to watching as much football as I can of them and looking at what they do well and what they don't do as well. Of course, there comes the element that not all teams play the way I do but I can get a decent idea of how they interact with other players. Recruitment tends to take weeks and months and I tend to write notes down as I go along. To be honest, it's part of the reason why my business normally gets done so early in the window, because it's been ongoing for so long. The next step, for me, is to use the DoF more in this process. I've just given him the chance to do the actual signing from a single-player list but need to progress that to allowing him to work through a shortlist, as is probably more realistic than how I'm doing it.